Good manufacturing processes, concern for the environment, and changes in environmental practices and regulations all have created additional needs in handling waste fluids after manufacturing and cleaning operations, especially in disposing of water based mixtures containing pollutants such as greases, oils, soaps, heavy metals, road film and carcinogens. Whereas in the past it was acceptable merely to dump such waste liquids in the ground or in sewer systems, current manufacturing practices and environmental laws and regulations now severely discourage and/or prohibit such practices. Although very laudable in intent, the result can be very costly especially to small manufacturers and to business operators who must use substantial quantities of water in their operations, as for example to clean and degrease manufactured parts such as metal products and the cleaning and maintenance of vehicles and other machines that by their nature will shed greases and oils and often detergents and road film with the wastewater. Larger manufacturers and large fleet operators presumably have the resources and efficiencies of scale to incorporate expensive water treatment facilities into their operations, but smaller operators historically have been limited to standard disposal techniques as by third-party hauling of large volumes of wastewater to third-party treatment sites, which whether privately or municipality owned are quite expensive both in the hauling and treatment costs. Even larger companies cannot justify large treatment facilities at their satellite locations and smaller division sites, or at their distribution, repair and wash centers where smaller fleets and/or fewer parts/equipment cleaning operations take place.
Biodegradable soaps and detergents of course are common, but their use does not suffice for the many thousands of equipment wash sites throughout the country, from which road film, greases, oil, heavy metals and carcinogens may be collected or emulsified in the wash water. The result can be contaminated ground and ground water, delayed work orders, reduced land values, and possible regulatory violations or else very expensive cleanup costs and substantial manifest and transpiration costs to remove the waste water.
Attempts have been made to reduce the costs and/or the volume of waste fluids requiring hauling and remote treatment/disposal. Examples include the "Water Eater" marketed by the Equipment Manufacturing Corporation of South El Monte, Calif., which is a self contained unit that uses electrical or gas heat to evaporate the water into the atmosphere while using a swivel tube to collect the non-volatile liquids such as oil that remain on the surface of the residual liquid in the container as the water is boiled off. Two other self contained water evaporator systems include the "Samsco" Water Evaporator (U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,525) that heats the liquid mixture by a serpentine gas-fired heat exchanger, and the free oils and the oils from the thermally broken emulsions are caused to float to the surface to be skimmed and precipitated solids settling to the bottom to be removed through a clean-out port, and the "Water Blaze" Evaporation System by Landa, Inc. of Portland, Oreg., which applies a flame directly to the wastewater stream as it is pumped into the unit.
The above described prior art seem to provide working wastewater treatment methods using evaporation techniques, but they also are complex in construction, lack transportability or may not be as efficient. For example, the gas flame of the Samsco unit is applied to a heat exchanger submersed in the water tank, which because of alkaline or acidic conditions of the water can cause serious damage to the equipment In the case of the Landa unit, the heat applied directly to the wastewater stream can, because of its temperature, cause even some of the contaminants in the water to be volatized. We have invented an alternate system also on the evaporation principle, but which is easy and relatively inexpensive to manufacture with readily available materials and components, simple and safe to operate, and relatively more efficient in the active removal of non-volatile fluids and other contaminants, thereby reducing initial costs as well as reduction in both treatment costs and working equipment down times. Moreover, none of the prior art as known by applicant readily lends itself to field use where natural gas or high voltage power lines often are not available.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an apparatus for treating wastewater by evaporation and recovery of substantially reduced volumes of non-volatile waste fluids and other contaminants.
It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus for treating wastewater by evaporation and recovery of non-volatile fluids and other contaminants which is compact and transportable for field use using convenient and flexible fuel and energy sources.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for treating wastewater that is very efficient and has space saving dimensions.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an apparatus for treating wastewater by evaporation and recovery of non-volatile fluids and other contaminants using conventionally available materials and components that are easy and safe to operate.